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ST. CHARLES — Appliance retailer Goedeker’s has laid off dozens of employees in its St. Louis operation, former employees said, as new executives continued to consolidate power in New York.

The workers said the cuts targeted roughly 40 people, or about half of the company’s St. Louis workforce. Executives told local leaders to cut their teams in early October. Jacob Guilhas, the former vice president of logistics, said he was asked to cut his team in half. In the weeks following the layoffs, a number of other employees quit of their own accord, including Guilhas, his deputy, and a manager of the company’s local warehouse.

“It’s been a bloodbath,� Guilhas said.

A person who worked in purchasing said her team was slashed to 3 staffers from as many as 10. Workers said accounting and IT were hit, too. Half the warehouse staff then left.

The company confirmed the cuts in a statement Thursday, casting them as part of a reorganization to grow its e-commerce business nationwide.

A company spokesman said positions have been added in New York and New Jersey, and in Florida, where Goedeker’s acquired another retailer this summer. The company is planning to open distribution centers in Texas and California to be closer to those major markets, and positions will be redistributed there, too. Some St. Louis positions have been refilled by people with more e-commerce experience, the spokesman said.

“We believe the difficult decisions made in recent months will help make us a stronger e-commerce business over the long-term,� the company said in its statement.

The decisions are just the latest indication of how quickly power has shifted east at Goedeker’s, which began as a television repair shop in south St. Louis 70 years ago. The company lost local ownership two years ago, when the Goedeker family sold to a New York private equity firm. It replaced CEO Steve Goedeker with former Sears executive Doug Moore, but, initially, the company retained much of its usual hometown presence. Moore kept an apartment in St. Louis.

Then, last December, Goedeker’s announced plans to buy New Jersey-based Appliances Connection, a company several times its size.

Moore decamped for Brooklyn, where Appliances Connection has its showroom and offices. By June, he was telling investors that the combined company would need one name — and it wouldn’t be Goedeker’s. By late summer, the company was shuttering the old superstore headquarters on Manchester Road in Ballwin.

In an interview July 23, Moore pointed out that the company was also building out a showroom in the same building as its new warehouse in St. Charles, and said St. Louis remained an important market for the company, one housing a “very large portion of our employees.�

But Moore left the company Aug. 31. The board appointed Albert Fouerti, who founded Appliances Connection, in his place.

Changes, then cuts

Within a few weeks, some workers started seeing changes. Mariela Banda, a logistics analyst who worked remotely from California before she was laid off in October, said she went from processing 100 orders per day to 10 or 12. Communication and weekly meetings with managers stopped, too. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ would put it on the calendar and then cancel it the day before,â€� she said.

In the warehouse, new executives said Appliances Connection orders should be the priority, even at the expense of those coming through , a former supervisor said.

Then came the cuts. Some employees were blindsided by the move. Banda, a single mother, said she broke down when she got the news. “I had never had any complaints about my performance,� she said. Geri Ried, a logistics worker who worked remotely from Dittmer, said she was getting trained on Appliances Connection software the day she was let go. Both said they were told they were being let go because there wasn’t enough work for them — at a time when sales remained above pre-pandemic levels and the company was looking to expand distribution.

But Guilhas, the logistics VP, said new management did not think much of the old Goedeker’s operation. And the former warehouse supervisor was told by his managers that top brass thought St. Louis operations were underperforming compared to Appliance Connection’s larger East Coast operations, and that clerical staff was redundant.

Company financials back that up. In filings for the past two quarters, Goedeker’s has cited Appliances Connection as the reason it recorded profits. Without the new addition, Goedeker would have seen last year’s losses continue and worsen, the company said.

At least some former Goedeker’s employees who spoke with the Post-Dispatch have since found new jobs. Guilhas, who is based in Dallas, is now head of operations at Goldin Auctions, which focuses on sports memorabilia. Banda said she’ll be a supervisor at another company. The old warehouse supervisor has found a similar position at another local firm. Ried is still looking.

Goedeker’s St. Louis presence has all but disappeared. Employees still in local operations are largely working from home. The old Manchester Road location still has the gold-lettered marquee up, but the inside has been cleared out.

A half-dozen warehouse workers still show up at the St. Charles building — the company’s official headquarters. But that promised showroom is empty, save for a few appliance boxes. No sign greets visitors, just a note on the glass: “Goedeker’s receiving hours, 8:30 a.m. thru 3 p.m., Mon-Fri.�

Then, scrawled by hand: “No traffic thru front door.�